How We Win In Our War

Question: In the sources we are told that the Creator manages all the wars for us; He fights for the children of Israel, expels them from their land and returns them to it, provides victory and defeat. Is this correct also in the twenty-first century?

Answer: Actually it is not that simple. Indeed, we don’t know exactly what happened in ancient times so it is difficult to make the comparison today. First of all we must understand the concept of “the wars of Israel.”

In fact, all of the wars of the children of Israel happen within them, against the “evil inclination” that disturbs their connection. Because of their inability to connect and to convey the method of correction to the whole world, external problems are added to their inner disturbances and we must invest effort in them also. That is how many wars were fought.

On our way from Egypt, we passed by way of Mount Sinai and the Sinai desert; there we fought not just once against Amalek and against other enemies. After that the wars of the conquest of the land of Israel began; seven nations dwelled there and we were compelled fight against them to expel them from the land.

But these were internal wars. The seven nations lived both in us and in our world. And in general, what happens within the soul is also copied outside; our world is a copy that is a reflection of our soul.

So the foundation of all of our wars is internal. It is up to us to fight against our ego that separates and distances us. And according to the Torah it is up to us to be as one man with one heart. We always need to fight for connection.

Question: This means that there is a goal that is determined from the start for all of these wars?

Answer: Right, there is one goal: to reach connection according to the present level, the present period. The picture that we see outside is found within us. This means that all our haters, all the anti-Semites, and in general the people, humanity, all of reality, everything is within me. And only so that I will have the possibility of relating to all this correctly do I see this external reflection that makes it possible for me to differentiate and recognize what is happening, and thus fight. But the war is internal: to connect my good characteristics and to advance with their help, to rise above my bad, egoistic characteristics. That is how I am victorious over my enemies, my defects. And then, on the outside, I also defeat the external enemies.

But the victory is only by means of the Light that Reforms. It is written, (Kiddushin 30b) “I created the evil inclination, I created the Torah as a spice, for the Light in it reforms.” This refers to the power that separates us and also the power of the Light that helps us connect and win.

Question: How does this mechanism work in a nation in a state of war? More precisely I am referring to the nation of Israel that is engaged in a war with Hamas?

Answer: We are not making the corrections, we have not connected between us, we have not connected with the nations of the world, and we have not helped them to unite with each other. We are to blame for their present situation because only through us does the Light reach the world; we must be a “light to the nations.” And if we don’t do this, then we have a war. Those characteristics that we haven’t corrected through connection seem to us like our enemies and our haters.

Have we succeeded in correcting them? Have we succeeded in winning this war? The true hero is the one who “transforms his haters into his lovers.”

Question: War always inflames passions in the people; there are those who agree and those who don’t agree, each one has his own opinion. Are these signs of separation that we must correct? Is it worthwhile to stimulate debate to try to connect all the extremes together?

Answer: Yes, nevertheless, the war is designed to awaken us. War in itself cannot correct anything. Only through a chain of troubles can it push us to a compulsory understanding of the situation, until we understand that it depends only upon us. But this is not with the armed forces or our military strategy, rather only with connection, with theArvut that we attain among the people and become an example of the right connection that makes it possible to overcome the crisis and reach general harmony.

Question: So how can we wage war after it has already broken out?

Answer: Without a choice we are fighting an external enemy and yet we clearly understand that, in fact, we are fighting with an internal enemy. Along with the military operations, it is up to us to strengthen, expand, and increase the connection between us because this is the main part of the war. The troops who are in Gaza, the “Iron Dome,” all of these are imperative only to gain time for the internal corrections.

Question: Every moment is precious! Our friends are falling on the battlefield. So how can we become wiser while we are immersed within the endless maelstrom of the news?

Answer: There is no need to disconnect from the flow of news, although most of it is not correct and not accurate. But nevertheless I would suggest being involved with connection. This means coming to workshops that we are doing all over the country, entering our website and learning what connection between people is. Even mental effort, even reading some article, is already a big correction, and through this the Light is extended through us to all of the people of Israel and through it to all the nations of the world. That is how everything will calm down.

Come, let’s do this with all of the people of Israel, and then we will see results throughout the world. Everyone will suddenly support us, including our uncompromising neighbors.

Question: This means that to have a breakthrough it is enough to open the doors and go towards one another?

Answer: Yes, “We open the doors of the heart”.

These are the “wars of Israel” and not battles against external enemies that we still conduct. The true battle is waged within the heart, within the yearnings of Yashar-El, when we fight to connect our hearts into one whole heart, to be as one person with one heart.

Indeed, the people of Israel at Mount Sinai were standing before an immense ego, a mountain of hatred (Sina), under conditions of connection. And the land of Israel (Eretz Yisrael), is a desire (Ratzon) directly yearning for the Creator (Yashar-El), the desire to bestow, for “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

To reach the land of Israel we had to accept the conditions of Arvut, connection, to be as one person with one heart, and after this to pass through a correction of forty years. But modern Israel has already existed for 66 years and we have not neared one another by even one millimeter, probably it has been closer to the opposite; apparently there is no people of Israel and the land of Israel doesn’t exist as an internal spiritual concept in which we must live.

And there are no wars of Israel in the true sense, for we are not fighting to become the people of Israel in the land of Israel, rather we are just a bunch of exiles.

Question: If the war is a “battle” to connect the people, so how exactly does the Creator manage the battle?

Answer: If we succeed in breaking through the current orientation and succeed in attracting the Upper Light, the power of connection, then it will fight for us.
[140104]
From KabTV’s “Kabbalists Write. The Wars of Israel” 7/21/14

Theory Without Practice Is Fruitless

A person needs to pass the integral method through his or her own feelings, to work repeatedly, dig through this material, grind it within oneself, enter it emotionally, and pass it through yourself.

This is not a simple system. You need to sense it gradually through your suffering, searching, and frustrations—through the questions inside you. Otherwise, nothing will come of it, just like with everything else.

How much does a person suffer, toil, blunder, and spend sleepless nights until he or she becomes a good specialist in something. This is the only way we grow, by grinding everything inside ourselves. Any workshop, any Convention, any collective action, leaves its imprint, its Reshimo (reminiscence).

We just held a two-day convention, which is already imprinted in a collective Kli (vessel) because a certain commonality formed here between us. Thus, in our future work, we will turn to this convention once again because it has its history and its continuation. This is how it works. This is why I feel sorry for those people who did not come here.
[140307]
From the International Summer Camp In Bulgaria “Day Two” 7/12/14, Lesson 3

It Isn’t Rational, But It Is A Fact

We should understand that we have no choice: The ball is in our court, those who have the method, and we have to act. No one but us knows what to do in this situation.

Eventually, everything depends on the art of organizing a circle because there is no other way to awaken the feeling of unity in people.

If we organize a circle and unite, we actually draw the Light that Reforms upon us and thus serve as an infusion of good energy to the world.

The debate continues about issues which seemingly make no sense: about the history of the Israeli nation, about its uniqueness, about why our name is constantly in the headlines, and why all the other nations have been focusing on us throughout history, why such a small state is the origin of all the religions and faiths in the world?

We speak about such facts that make no sense, but are true! The world sees it and is turning more and more against us. This doesn’t make sense, but we have gotten used to this and think that it is the norm, not that there is any rationale.

Question: But every nation has problems concerning its inner unity, why do we have to work on our unity in addition to taking military actions?

Answer: We shouldn’t discuss military actions at all. This conflict has no military solution. The solution is actually in the society. We have to become as one man in one heart, and thanks to that, the whole world will also unite into one heart. All of humanity will become as one man! This is how it works.

Question: What should we do if there are people who understand this but others who don’t?

Answer: We need integral education here. When you started school you didn’t know high mathematics, history, and geography, but you were gradually taught all that. This is called education, which is a continuous process. We have to keep it up and continue.

Question: Will we see how one collective opinion is starting to spread among us?

Answer: We will not just see how one opinion spreads among us; it will also become our common opinion. After all, we will establish our collective desire and opinion, which means a common heart and mind. It makes no difference whether we know how this happens because it is fulfilled by the upper force. We sit in a circle, we speak, and suddenly we begin to feel that we are becoming round and that we merge in the center of the circle.
[140232]
From KabTV’s “The Mission of the People of Israel,” 7/08/14

Pressure From Above, Pressure From Below…

Question: Is Israel bringing Shefa (abundance) and Light to the World? In the meantime everyone is blaming us for bringing harm to the world.

Answer: In the meantime, we are stopping up the conduits of theLight and are not letting the Light and Shefa to pour through them to all the worlds. We are in the lowest world, in the center of all of creation, and we are stopping up the passage of the Light, of the abundance from above to below, by not letting it rise back from below to above.

The problem is that although we are all in a sea of Light, of Shefa, it is coming from above to below and pressing on us through those systems that we must activate but yet. The Light is pressing on Israel through nature, through the nations of the world.

Israel feels the pressure from below, from those to whom it needs to transfer the Light, and also pressure from above, from the Light that must pass through it to all the nations of the world and the nature of the still, vegetative, and animate. Israel is found in the middle and feels the pressure from both sides.
[140297]
From the Preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/23/14

In One “Slice” Of Desire

Question: You said that a person must use all that he has in order to fulfill the friend. But what is there in me?

Answer: If you have come here together with all of those people sitting next to you in the lesson and with another few thousand from all over the world, this is a sign that you are connected to them. The Light illuminates the general desire to receive, penetrates into some stratum of this desire to receive, and to the degree of its intensity, to the degree of its power, it awakens all of us. So we are awakened from this “slice” of desire that the Light illuminates and penetrates through us and awakens us. Otherwise we would remain beasts.

In this “slice,” we are connected to each other. Therefore all of us are called “friends” because there can be a connection between us; according to the mutual understanding, feeling, attainment and help. This is the difference between friends who belong to one layer of desire and our connection with the highest and the lowest. Among us we are equal.

So my correction is connection with all of those who are found in this slice of desire. This is because I understand that if we don’t connect this level, this slice, we will not continue the correction. Before us were the previous slices of desire, from Adam HaRishon forward. And we are in a new, very unique slice that from now on begins the correction of the true Malchut.

Question: But what is there in me?

Answer: What is in you is a connection to all the rest of the parts that were revealed together with you. And you must be in connection with them, to the degree that this is possible. There are those that you don’t identify with at the moment; there are those with whom you have a close, strong, and good connection. You have to know that your correction is to be connected with them.

Imagine to yourself: We are all found in one slice. Our correction is to be connected between us. There is nothing besides this! It’s impossible within this slice to think about myself. For here we are talking the slice of desire that has been revealed. The next generation will already be a lower slice or level and so on. So my personal correction is in this, that I will cause all of those who are within my slice to be connected into a single whole. And this is all.
[130812]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/24/14, The Zohar

One Desire In Two Forms

Question: You said that while presenting and bringing the integral program to the external public it is possible to mention the existence of a single managing force in nature that we take for granted.

Is it possible to explain that this force can be discovered through experiments in both one’s feelings and mind, but it is necessary to change our nature? And that it is impossible to do this alone; it can only happen in a society?

Answer: Certainly. If you can present all this correctly, then both scientists and ordinary people will understand you. The problem is that science is not connected with psychology. It cannot be connected with the investigation of feelings. In this field, Einstein implemented a slight breakthrough, and then everything became quiet again.

Today, in relation to this, there are all kinds of shifts among physicists and astrophysicists, but so far no science has appeared that is able to connect what has been observed with instruments and what happens in our consciousness.

The problem is in the attainment of reality, meaning, where the reality of our physical senses ends and the new senses, that are created by us collectively, begins.

In principle, only one sense exists, desire. But if I feel this desire within me, then it is on the level of the still, vegetative, and animate. But apparently if I feel the desire outside of me, then this is a desire on the level of Adam (man).

In the meantime, it is still difficult to explain this, but I think that soon we will clarify this question. I hope that I can still get something done and humanity will understand that all of this is our one desire: It seems to us that it is within us or that it is outside of us; we connect it together and get a true picture of creation.
[140313]
From the International Summer Camp In Bulgaria “Day Two”7/12/14, Lesson 3

Unity Of Israel: Time Is Running Out

Question: From the sources we know that the Creator has always been involved in all of our wars. He is the one who is in charge, depending on whether we fulfill our role or not. All of the victories and losses of the people of Israel were determined by Him, according to our success or failure in realizing our main goal.

Answer: It seems that the Creator is not connected at all with His Mitzvot(commandments). Similarly, a person doesn’t want to listen to doctors who advise him about the right nutrition. He says: “It isn’t important. I know by myself what I am should eat.”

But then troubles and diseases begin and the person doesn’t understand why this is happening to him. So the doctors say: “But we warned you that not all food products are beneficial for health. You caused the trouble yourself.” He replies “What all are you saying? I didn’t do anything! How could I have known?”

There is no reason to justify yourself by saying that you didn’t see the obstacle. The law is the law. If I eat something toxic now, I am could become ill, or die from it.

All of nature is a system of absolute laws. If I know how to use them, it is good for me, and if I don’t, ignorance of these laws doesn’t ease my fate.

So let’s show maturity and understand that if we are constantly faced with various problems, this means that we are not aware of the laws of the system. Nature is a scientific matter, it is wisdom, it is a complex of forces that connect and work together on various levels, whether it is the macrocosms, chemical reactions, or human relations. Systems operate everywhere, and if we don’t recognize the laws of their operation, then we constantly invite all kinds of troubles upon ourselves.

As a result, we all suffer. And our main problem is that we don’t learn from our mistakes. We constantly monitor a little child so he won’t get into trouble. And nobody is following us and we are making all kinds of mistakes. How does the higher power handle us?

The higher power is the general universal law of nature that includes all of the particular laws. This comprehensive law explains to us how the system of creation works. And today, thanks to the crisis, we are gradually beginning to discover it.

First, in the nature of the still, vegetative, and animate, we see that all parts of this system are connected and interdependent. They complement and support each other, all of them except for humans. And now we personally understand that we must keep the right and good interconnection, otherwise we cause the same crisis in all kinds of areas, whether it is in education, the family, work, commerce, industry , etc.

Everything that we have built, all of the systems of relationships that we have created since coming down from the trees and becoming human beings, is all egoistic. The ego encourages us to profit at the expense of one another. Basically we don’t resemble the integral analog system of nature. Humanity is not adjusted to it.

So we are constantly receiving blows, especially in our present stage of development. And it is no wonder: Throughout the entire length of the process our ego has constantly been growing, and as a result, the blows are stronger.

On the other hand, the Creator is the general law that connects all parts of reality into one complete system. What does it lack in order to be complete? It lacks a humanity that exists according to the same laws. People must understand the need for good connection,empathy, and love. In fact, this is saying that it is necessary to become like one person with one heart. This is the condition.

Question: Is this a condition for all people?

Answer: Right. But among all of the peoples there is one unique group of people, it must be the first to fulfill this condition and after that to provide an example to all the rest. As long as it doesn’t’ provide this example, everyone hates it and blames it for all the problems.

Question: Does this mean that the world is not balanced today because of Israel?

Answer: Yes, the Jews are not giving the world the right example to show them how to organize the good life. We must be teachers, or to using the words of the Torah (Exodus 19:6) “a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation” (Isaiah 49:6), a “Light to the nations.”

And the wars, including the current standoff, testify to the imbalance of the system in which the Jews are not fulfilling their role. Moreover, this is only the beginning; we are facing more difficult ecological problems if we don’t begin to equilibrate with one another.

From the first immigration to the land of Israel, a particular time was allocated to the Jews to organize themselves correctly. But we have not done so, and at the moment a very difficult period is beginning. We must begin to connect and show the world that this is for its own good. And then people will understand this, they will feel a need for us and will help us.

The time has arrived to loudly annouce: “Yes, we understand that we must serve as an example of the right connection between people for everyone, that we must live according to the principle of bestowal: (Isaiah 41:6) “They helped every one his neighbor,” (Shabbat 31a) “Don’t do to your friend what is hateful to you,” (Leviticus 19:18) “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself,” we must become “one person with one heart.” Yes, we must become one whole, as it is written: “All of Israel are friends.” We are beginning to work on this, and we promise you that we are making all efforts and will be a good example to you, so that everyone, the whole world, will reach this.

If without shame we proclaim this before everyone, suddenly they will begin to understand us. Even the greatest anti-Semites will understand from where their inner drive comes: “This is the reason that I hate them… .”

Question: How does the wisdom of Kabbalah explain our relationships with the Creator, that is, the primary factor causing the consequences in the fate of the people and the world?

Answer: The wisdom of Kabbalah makes it possible for us to understand and to feel the entire system. It gives us the sense of the laws of nature. When we begin to study this system, we begin to discern its facets: This is good and that is bad, this must continue, and that should be avoided. We see how it is necessary to be integrated into a society correctly; how the society must be integrated into humanity; how humanity must be integrated with the nature of the still, vegetative, and animate of the universe; how we can go outside to feel the upper worlds; and how to live in all of these worlds.

All of humanity must reach this. This is the general correction for which we are responsible.
[139897]
From KabTV’s “Kabbalists Write: The Wars of Israel” 7/18/14

There Is Nothing More To Hide!

Question: When we organize a workshop in a circle, do we need to talk about the Upper Light, about the wisdom of Kabbalah, or is simple connection and unity enough?

Answer: Today it is possible to speak with people about everything that touches upon correction. There is nothing more to hide! It is possible to speak on the highest level. The problem is only in whether they will understand you. But nobody will be opposed. Don’t be afraid to reveal to people as much as you can of the true Torah, they will not reject you.

Your basis is evidence that is five thousand years old: beginning from Adam HaRishon, Abraham, Moses, all the patriarchs. All of the following generations of Kabbalists spoke about the same thing, about the correction of the world that Israel must carry out.

For thousands of years until today, we have been preparing for this moment, and now finally the time for correction has come! All of the Kabbalists wrote about our time: that at the end of the twentieth century we would be entering into the period of the end of correction.

All of this must be explained to people every time  in words that are understandable, depending on the audience. It is similar to the way science is adapted for children of various ages, accompanied by all kinds of games and exercises. The method of correction is like this, adapting this higher spiritual wisdom for every person to use.

At the time we begin to be involved with people, we are already carrying out a correction. It is specifically we who are realizing this correction and not them. Our organizing them in a circle already constitutes the correction.

We organize a workshop and provide questions for discussion through which people clarify the essence of everything that we are talking about now: What is the uniqueness of the people of Israel, its obligation to correct the whole world?And with this we are carrying out a correction.
[140087]
From KabTV’s “The Mission of the People of Israel,” 7/8/14